TUSCARORA. 



ERECTION AND DESCRIPTION. 



TusCARORA was formed from Addison, Dec. 13, 1859. 

 It includes township No. 1 of the third range of Phelps 

 and Gorham's purchase, and is situated on the south border 

 of the county, east of the centre. The surface is hilly and 

 somewhat broken by the valleys of the Tuscarora Creek and 

 other small streams. The soil is chiefly a clay loam, with 

 gravel and alluvium in the creek-valleys. 



EARLY SETTLEMENT. 



William Wombough, the first settler of Tuscarora, was a 

 native of New Jersey, and the son of a Revolutionary sol- 

 dier. His departure from the old home was characterized 

 by that impetuosity which was his ruling characteristic 

 through life, and which made for him an abundant success 

 where many others would have failed. After his father's 

 death there arose a dispute about the division of the prop- 

 erty, when William, then a young man, said if they would 

 give him $100 he would leave and let the rest settle it among 

 themselves. He added to this $70 during the next season, 

 and in June, 1804, purchased 187 acres in the Tuscarora 

 Valley, including the present residence of his son, William 

 Wombough, in the town of Tuscarora, a few rods from the 

 south line of Addison. Engaging in lumbering in a small 

 way, Mr. Wombough was so successful in his various enter- 

 prises that in 1806 he built a small grist-mill and a saw- 

 mill on the stream, just in front of the family residence. 

 His rich bottom lands produced heavy crops of wheat and 

 corn, which were gladly loaned by the settlers up the creek 

 and others who were less favored, to be paid with increase 

 after harvest. His mill was without a competitor for many 

 miles. Working industriously in the lumber-woods him- 

 self, he invested his gains in lands, becoming in a few years 

 the possessor of a large amount of valuable timber lands. 

 Although within the present bounds of Tuscarora, the ben- 

 efit of his industries accrued to Addison, but little settle- 

 ment being made south for several years. A mile and a 

 half up the valley Amos Dolph made the first settlement at 

 Carrtown, afterwards known as Addison Hill. Amos 

 Towsley, whose son, John Towsley, was a prominent citizen 

 for a number of years, settled between them in 1816. Jesse 

 Rowley settled at the forks of the creek, a mile above Mr. 

 Dolph, but three months after Mr. Wombough, in 1804. 

 Mr. Rowley came from the North River, bringing with him 

 a family of ten, three others being born in Tuscarora, of 

 whom Jemima, wife of John Plimley, who was born in 

 February, 1806, was the first child born in the town. 

 Jesse W. Rowley, son of Jesse Rowley, the present town 

 clerk and proprietor of the long-known " Rowley's Tavern," 

 was born on the place where he now lives, and is the oldest 

 living man who was born in Tuscarora. He has been either 

 402 



town clerk or supervisor every year but five since the for- 

 mation of the town. At the time of Mr. Rowley's settle- 

 ment there was no inhabitant between him and Osceola, 

 Pa., nor between him and Woodhill. In 1816, Samuel 

 Colgrove and Mr. Tousley came on the creek above Wom- 

 bough's. 



Lying for the most part on the point of land between the 

 Tioga Valley and the valley of the Canisteo, the easy 

 outlet for lumber destined Tuscarora to an early settlement. 

 Heavily timbered, and divided on the south into separate 

 ridges by small streams, and the north and east opened by 

 the Tuscarora Creek, it only required a market to furnish 

 many a winter's work to the hardy lumbermen, whose 

 camp, built of huge logs and roofed with snow-laden 

 boughs, existed for a season, then moved to a more favored 

 locality. The hardy adventurer, who with a family of little 

 ones, attempted to penetrate the dense forest in the south 

 part of the town, before the advance of civilization, is well 

 entitled to remembrance. Daniel Strait, an old soldier of 

 the Revolution, migrated from Chenango County, in 1799, 

 to the Cowanesque Valley, but finding a more favored 

 locality among the thrifty pines upon the point above the 

 '' Lindsley Settlement," made the first settlement in southern 

 Tuscarora, adjoining the Pennsylvania line, on what is 

 known as the Morehead place, in 1809. Following the 

 example of other early travelers, he chose winter that he 

 might travel on the ice. After breaking through several 

 times in his journey down the river, he succeeded in work- 

 ing his passage to a point on the hill, sheltered on the east 

 and west, and overlooking the broad valley far to the south 

 when the dense forest was removed, but then so completely 

 veiled by standing timber as to only admit the midday sun- 

 shine to the little " opening," which had been cleared to 

 erect the first rude log cabin. For seven years he lived 

 here, alone with his little family, the nearest neighbor being 

 on the river, five miles away. The little log cabin lies in 

 ruins near the spring, and the aged veteran sleeps on the 

 hill-side near by. His son, Daniel Strait, Jr.*, lived to see 

 the modern frame house succeed the log one, the hills 

 checkered here and there with clearings, and he, too, at 

 the age of seventy-eight, was removed from the scene of 

 his labors, leaving two sons, Luke and Joel, who live just 

 over the hill to the west. In 1816, Asahel Thomas joined 

 the elder Mr. Strait, but it was not until 1824, when Joseph 

 Gile came on the hill, and settled where Archibald Manley 

 now lives, that a road was blazed through to Addison. 

 John C. Orr, father of John Orr, a leading merchant of 

 Addison, settled two miles south of Addison, in the north- 

 eastern part of Tuscarora, about 1816 ; his father, Joseph 

 Orr, coming afterwards, together with other members of the 

 Orr family, and forming the Orr Settlement before any 



